Kenya’s Court of Appeals rules that withholding tax is due on payments to card companies and interchange fees

Executive summary

The Kenya Court of Appeals (COA), on 6 November 2020, ruled on an eight year tax dispute between a Kenyan Bank (the Bank/the Respondent) and the Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA/the Appellant) with respect to the nature of certain services between parties involved in card transactions and the applicability of withholding tax (WHT) on payments made for these services. Specifically, the case dealt with payments to credit card companies and payments to banks that issue debit and/or cre…